Technology In Learning Award

THIS YEARS WINNERS ARE:

‘Sci-Fi and Wi-FI’

Mere Green Primary School, Four Oaks, Birmingham

Nominated by: Terri Coombs

Birmingham School wins award for Jurassic teaching!!

Mere green primary school in Birmingham is now the proud recipient of the Community Education Awards ‘Technology in Learning’ award for their work in bringing technology into the classroom in the most innovative of ways.

The school submitted an application for the award following on from their successful project encouraging writing in students through the use of VR technology, videos and activities to engage imaginations and provide exciting topics.

After noticing in the data they were capturing that there was a lack of engagement during creative writing the school. Specifically, Terri Coombs, IT leader and specialist leader of education alongside literacy leader Aimee Bursnall worked to provide children with the opportunity of using IT.

The project took form into two separate parts, an augmented reality mystery and then a linked literacy and video project. The year 2 class investigated mysterious footprints after their classroom was ransacked in a very prehistoric fashion. After examining CCTV that the teachers had created using apps, the intrepid defectives found dinosaurs stomping around the playground and classroom. After exploring the evidence and forming conclusions, detectives had to write about their experiences.

Adam Pattinson, one of the teachers involved in the project described his experience, “Using augmented reality really helped to gain the children’s interest. We showed the children videos and photographs of dinosaurs in our classroom. They were fascinated about where the dinosaurs could have come from.

Many of them became super sleuths when trying to find out about them and enjoyed trying to prove whether the dinosaurs were real or not.”

During the awards ceremony, Owen Parry of the Community Education Awards described the project as “Exactly what education needs to evolve and adapt in to. Mere Green is truly leading the way into incorporating technology into everyday learning, making for a better, more engaging and more interactive learning experience.”